The Gospel Source

How do you respond to hard times? Do you respond with joy or with discouragement? When things are tough, what do you do to find joy? Is it possible to find joy that cannot be shaken by the circumstances in life?

Involvement:

These are the questions that we can ask of ourselves as we turn to our text this morning.

Context:

As you can see, this morning we are going to continue our series through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Last week, we reviewed as we started looking at this letter that this is really the second letter that Paul wrote to be preserved in our New Testament. Paul wrote this letter because he was concerned about this young church. Paul, along with Silas (Silvanus as he is known by his Latin name in this letter) and Timothy, had come to Thessalonica after being released from prison in Philippi. They arrived in Thessalonica and immediately started sharing the Gospel. As we saw last week in Acts 17 there were some who believed, but it wasn’t long before serious opposition arose in that city…so serious that Paul and his friends had to get out of town quick. As soon as he could, Paul had sent Timothy, the youngest member of their team back to Thessalonica to see how the young believers were faring. Timothy had found that the church was doing well…the believers were standing firm and growing in the grace of Christ. It was in response to this favorable report that Paul wrote this letter to send back to the believers so that it could be read to them when they gathered together for worship.

Paul had received good news. We would expect that he might be thankful to hear that things are going so well and that is what we found as we started looking at the first three verses last week. What we also found, though, is that Paul is directing his thanks to God—God is the One who is responsible for the growth that Timothy has observed in the Thessalonians. Paul knows that and he thanks God for it. He also wants to ensure that the Thessalonians know the same, so he tells them that he has been thanking God for them…they need to know that what is happening in their lives is because God is working in them. Ultimately all praise goes to God because God is the Source of their growth.

This morning we will be picking up in the middle of Paul’s thanksgiving. He, along with Silvanus and Timothy, has already thanked God for a threefold evidence of growth reported by Timothy in the Thessalonians. This threefold evidence is actually the first reason that Paul is thankful to God. Since we are in the middle of Paul’s ongoing thanksgiving, let’s read verses 2 and 3 of chapter 1 again to remind ourselves of Paul’s thanksgiving…<read>

As Paul thanked God for their evidenced of Christian life he mentioned three things: their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope.

Illustration

We focused on this last week, but it is so important that I want to emphasize it again today. We thank God for what He does in our lives…and every spiritual thing that we find in our lives is evidence that God is at work. All too often, we find joy in what God is doing but we forget to thank Him for it. We may indulge a child who receives a present and in his or her excitement doesn’t thank us for it. We expect much more of adults, though....adults are expected to thank the hand by which the present was received. Even more so, should be we thankful for all that God has done…in both our own lives and in the lives of others.

Preview:

I wanted to review the first reason that Paul has given thanks to God because we are going to jump right into the second reason as we move into our verses for this week. I told you last week that we were breaking where there wasn’t a period in your bibles…at least not in most of our English translations and certainly not in the Greek original. Verse 4, where we are picking up, flows right on giving another reason why Paul is giving thanks in verse 2.

Transition from introduction to body:

Let’s go ahead and jump right back into Paul’s thanksgiving this morning and read our verses for this morning…we are going to read verses 4–7 this morning, as you can see on the screen above me…<read>

These four verses really give a single reason for why we should thank God but we are going to build that reason up in three steps today so that we can think through what Paul is saying in these verses. Let’s start our idea out this way…

BODY:

I. God’s electing love should cause us to thank God.

In verse 4 we see the beginning of Paul’s second reason introduced with the word “knowing.” That word “knowing” means that he has knowledge about something. Paul has already indicated that through Timothy’s report he has knowledge of the evidence of their Christian growth—the evidence of spiritual life that is obvious within them. Now, though, Paul is adding something more that he has knowledge of. The specific thing is found at the end of the verse—God’s choice of them, their divine election.

Divine election is the idea that God chose specific individuals for salvation, a choice that Paul says in Eph 1:4 occurred before the foundation of the world. Whenever the topic of divine election comes up in our day…and frankly for the past 500 years at least, there seems to be the strong likelihood of emotions rising. Election is one of those topics that make some of us uneasy…and one which some of us may think that we don’t even like very much. If that’s the way you find yourself responding at this point, let me ask you to force your emotions to go on hold for a moment and let’s look at what Paul is specifically saying in these verses. Remember, he is giving a reason for which he is thanking God. That means that in Paul’s mind, divine election is a wonderful thing…and we should remember that Paul’s mind is under the influence of divine inspiration at the moment. Our responsibility is to learn to look at this topic of election in the way that he is looking at it in this passage.

So, Paul is thanking God because he knows of their divine election…yet notice what words are inserted in the verse between “knowing” and “choice”, “brethren beloved by God.” The way this sentence is structured Paul is indicating that God’s divine choice of them is connected to two characteristics that are such a part of their lives that he can now use them as forms of address—ways to speak to them. One, he can now call them “brethren.” And two, He can now call them “beloved by God.”

Let’s take the second one first. “beloved by God.” When the topic of divine election comes up, some people make the charge that it suggests that God is unloving because He only chose some people and not all. They attempt to use the doctrine to paint God as ultimately cruel; they say that there is no other logical conclusion: if God could have chosen someone for salvation, ensuring that person’s eternal soul, and yet He did not, then God, then God is a cruel God and thus they reject the idea of divine election. Such a picture of election, though, is completely contrary to what we see here…and really throughout all of Scripture. Scripture always…let me repeat that…always connects the idea of God’s choice—divine election—with God’s love. Consider for example, Deut 7:7–8 which sounds somewhat like our passage here:

“The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God’s love is presented in Scripture as the source of God’s election. The Bible teaches that God elects individuals because He loves them. What is removed by the biblical doctrine of election is any aspect of human worth or merit. God never elected individuals because of any virtue inherent within them—which is a good thing because every single one of us have nothing that we could offer in that sense to God—God doesn’t elect because of any virtue inherent in people, He elects because He has chosen to love them in spite of what He might find in the individual.

Illustration

We can somewhat understand this idea of choice as we watch new parents with a baby…I haven’t been in a position to observe Mark and Joy with Levi, but I fully expect that this observation holds true for them as the most recent example. Parents love their newborns babies. They love them because they choose to love them, not because the babies have done anything to earn that love. I would assume at this point in life, from an objective standpoint all that little Levi has done is still a lot of sleep from the parents, filled a lot of diapers with less than glamorous keepsakes, and consumed an amount of financial resources that far exceed his size ratio to the family. Levi has contributed nothing of objective value to the family, he only takes. Maybe he has contributed a few smiles, but even then you really don’t know if he is just passing gas or something. He really brings nothing of value—no virtue—to the table; and yet he is undoubtedly loved. In fact, we would think there was something wrong with the parents if he wasn’t. We expect them to choose to love Levi.

Well, God has chosen to love those He saves. There is no explanation for it other than God’s choice. He chooses and He loves. And Paul thanks God for it.

Remember, God’s choice is also connected to the reason that Paul is addressing them as brethren as well. You see, when God choose to love, His love transforms people from different sectors of society—different economic groups, different nationalities, different cultures, different tribes and tongues—into a united family of brothers and sisters. A family which can address God as their loving Father.

This is a revolutionary way of thinking about the relationship between the human and the divine. In the world of the NT…the world in which the Thessalonians lived, all interactions between the gods and the people were designed to placate angry gods or solicit favors from distracted gods. There was no thought of a familial-type of relationship with a god, none of the many temples were for the purpose of communing with the god. Yet, Paul says the true God is a God of love who chooses to pour out that love in a saving manner that results in a new community—a community of brothers and sisters who are able to bask in His love.

Application

We need to remember this distinction because it is still the ultimate distinction today. The God of the Bible is a loving God; all false gods created by human minds are not. The human mind cannot conceive of a god who chooses to love those who are unlovable. Frankly, we even struggle to understand it when we see it written in the words of God’s own revelation to us. The question that divine election always raises is why would God choose me? Why would God love me?

When you get down to it, the message that we are to take to the world in the form of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the message that in spite of everything a person may know to be true about themselves, there is a God who chose to love them enough to send His own Son to die for their sins. They can have a relationship with that God by accepting Jesus as

Application

I’ve spent a lot of time on this first point because we really need to understand it. People will come to salvation through the words that we say when we share the gospel message of Jesus Christ, but they will not come to salvation because of the words we say; people will only come to salvation because of the power of God’s electing love doing the transformative work required to change a spiritually dead person to a spiritually alive person. This is why every time we see such happen our response cannot be to silently commend ourselves for our faithfulness in proclaiming the message; our response must be one of publically thanking God for His electing love that has been poured out in the life of that person. All praise goes to the One who powers the message, not the one who carried the message.

Transition:

God’s electing love should cause us to thank God. That is the beginning of Paul’s idea found in our verses this morning. We see that part of the idea in verse 4. We should be thanking God for His electing love in people’s lives.

Now, let’s build further on this idea…

II. God’s electing love should cause us to thank God for others joyfully believing in Christ.

As we move on, let’s ask the question, how did Paul know that the Thessalonians were people who were chosen by God? How did he know they were part of God’s elect? How did he know that it was appropriate to thank God for their elect status?

The answer is found in verse 5, Paul knew that the Thessalonians were elect because of the way that that the gospel had come to them—it came in power and in the Holy Spirit as demonstrated by full conviction within them that it was the truth. It wasn’t the uniqueness of the words that Paul spoke nor the eloquence by which they were delivered that convinced him of their status before God; it was their response to the words…a response that demonstrated that the words had supernatural power because they produced supernatural results. Their elect status was displayed to Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy by their acceptance of the gospel message—they believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

One thing that I want us to notice is Paul’s comment here in verse 5 that the gospel did not come “in word only.” This does not mean that Paul and his companions did not use words to communicate the gospel message; certainly they did. It means that there was necessarily something more in play than just their words; the power and full conviction that produced salvation was tied to the spiritual dimension; the Holy Spirit accompanied the words.

Application

This is something that we need to really absorb. Too often we use excuses to not give the gospel because that seems to imply that the power of the gospel depends on the words that we use. We say things like, “I don’t know what to say; I might mess it up so I don’t say anything.” This excuse places the power of salvation on our words. Do you know enough to believe in Jesus yourself? If not, we need to talk so that you can find salvation today…I say that in all seriousness. If, however, you know enough to believe in Jesus then you know enough to talk about Jesus. Yes, we are having the Exchange seminar to teach us how to be even more effective and less nervous talking about Jesus, but we cannot use the excuse now because the power of the gospel does not lie in our words only.

On the flip side, sometimes we beat ourselves up because we have shared the gospel with someone and that person has rejected it. We wonder what else we could have said that would have “made” the person believe. Such a thought is wrong. Again, we are moving the power of the gospel to our words. Salvation is a spiritual matter. Only the Holy Spirit can do the spiritual work because it takes spiritual power and spiritual conviction to believe in Christ.

Because God has elected people—He has chosen to love people—we have the confidence that He will send His Spirit to do that work in people’s lives. We don’t know who and we don’t know when, but we know He will…and we can anticipate that, like Paul, God will likely position us in the place to witness such as we faithfully communicate the words of the gospel because then we can given thanks to Him for His work in saving people.

Transition:

God’s electing love should cause us to thank God for others joyfully believing in Christ. The idea we get from Paul in our verses is building, but we haven’t quite gotten all of it yet; we need to add one final thought to this idea…

III. God’s electing love should cause us to thank God for others joyfully believing in Christ even during tribulation.

Even during tribulation. That is the final component brought out in Paul’s idea. At the end of verse 5 he calls the Thessalonians themselves to function as witnesses to the attitude that he and his companions had as they first presented the gospel in that city. Surely these new believers of Thessalonica would have known that Paul and Silas arrived fresh from their overnight prison stay in Philippi. Likely Paul and Silas would have still been recovering from the mob beating that they received before being tossed into prison. Yet, even with this recent suffering, they also would have been well aware that the men began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as soon as they arrived in the city; their concern for the salvation of people in Thessalonica was stronger than their desire to avoid attracting the kind of attention that might earn another beating…they boldly proclaimed Christ.

Application

Oh how little opposition it seems to take to get us to refrain from talking about Jesus. It is not that we are not necessarily bold in the face of opposition in general. We are often quick to hold to unpopular political opinions or to advocate for specific commercial products or diet plans or parenting strategies…or all kinds of things. Shoot, some of us will even confidently assert that to being Ohio fans in Michigan. In general, we are not afraid of taking unpopular positions. But face some opposition about our believe in Christ and too many of us quickly clam up and keep the gospel to ourselves…telling ourselves that we will be glad to share Jesus with anyone who asks us about him.

That is not the way that Paul, Silas, and Timothy behaved though. They were very willing to face further persecution if necessary; their concern was to proclaim Christ. And guess what? The Thessalonians took note. In fact, they took such notice of the behavior of these gospel messengers that they not only believed the message themselves; they began imitating their behavior. Look at verses 6 and 7. The reception of the message by the recipients of this letter led to them to become “imitators” of Paul and his companions. Even when Paul and the other men had to leave the city, the Thessalonians continued to imitate them even when the persecution swung around and nailed them.

Remember, we looked at Acts 17 last week….Paul, Silas, and Timothy had to leave town quickly because of violent opposition that came out of the Jewish quarters and that spread throughout the city. Apparently that hostility did not end when Paul and others left…the Jews hated the message of Christ so those who believed that message came under tribulations.

This word that we have translated as “tribulations” means severe difficulties. It is not describing the kinds of oppositions we might face here in America…at least not at the moment. It is talking about physical persecution—the taking of property and infliction of pain type of persecution. And how were they responding to this persecution? “With the joy of the Holy Spirit.” They were joyfully continuing to hold to Christ—the joy of their salvation far exceeded any sorrow brought by suffering.

And what was the result of this joyful response to persecution in the lives of the Thessalonians? They kept right on believing in Jesus Christ; they never wavered in their faith at all. In fact, what Timothy apparently discovered through his trip back to check in on them was that not only were they standing firm in their faith; they were doing so in such a public fashion that they had become “an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” Macedonia and Achaia were the Roman provinces that make up most of the area that is now Greece. In other words, the Thessalonians were serving as an example far and wide.

Application

Now I know what some of you might be thinking…this is nuts! How can you be joyful when your suffering? Shoot, I get discouraged when I don’t get 20 likes on my FB post that I’m going to church. What we really need to recognize is that we have lived in an abnormal historical bubble here in America over the past couple of hundred years. In the NT the general expectation is that Christianity will entail suffering. We should be grateful that we have not had to endure such, but I cannot help but wonder if the fact that we have been free from such persecution has led to a diminishing of our appreciation of our salvation. All around the world, even today, believers are suffering real persecution for their faith and doing so with joy. Yet we seem to struggle to match that joy for our salvation without the suffering. Now, I don’t think we have to have suffering in order to have joy…such would be unbiblical. I do think, though, that we are likely guilty of no thinking sufficiently about what we have received in salvation. If we think about all that we have through Christ’s electing love, the result will be that we too will be joyfully telling others about what He has done for us…we will be an example to believers far and wide because we are proclaiming the wonders of our Savior.

Transition from body to conclusion:.

We need to be rejoicing in our own salvation. And, like Paul, we need to be thanking God for what He has done in the lives of those who are suffering for the name of our Savior.

CONCLUSION

God’s electing love should cause us to thank God for others joyfully believing in Christ even during tribulation.

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